1:5:10 Lores (Part 4)

Following the grey line, they arrived at the prison floor. Stepping out of the lift and onto the floor, they were transported back in time; their heart started beating hundreds of times faster than they thought possible, an icy hand crossed their shoulder, holding them upright. A dim, golden haze filled their eyes and a sickening pang of fear sank to the bottom of their stomach. They wanted to run.

“No.” Lore muttered under their breath and the illusion was broken. The corridor ahead had been cleaned since their last visit; The scorch marks from the pursuing blasters no longer adorned the walls. They walked slowly, a luxury they could not indulge in during their last visit.
Char rested a hand on their shoulder. “Alright?” She whispered. They returned her concern with a subtle nod as they continued.
The path they followed to take them to the cells was thankfully unfamiliar or at least not as memorable as their final scurry to the lift. That changed as they neared the cells. Glass walled interrogation units lined the corridors; a spectral form of Brian filled each suspect seat.
Lore didn’t notice until Alodrass reached out. “Lore. Everything’s okay.” Her voice was the most calming thing they had ever heard and they didn’t even realise they needed calming. The ghosts of their past faded once again.
“Didn’t realise that’s what I looked like…” Brian sulked jovially. “I was going for something a little more dignified and stoic.” He paused. “In all seriousness, I’m sorry you had to see that.”
Lore nodded. “That is something that’s bothered me… How did you charge a Breacher using weapons fire? On that topic, how did you even get my Breacher?”
“Ah… It’s… Complicated.” Brian hoped that would be enough.
“No. Tell us.” Char shot him a stern glance. He retaliated poorly by looking to Alodrass for help.
She nodded. Brian began. “When my future self handed me the Breacher, he told me that it was almost useless.”
“You got it from your future self?” Char interrupted.
“Yes, I did.” Brian shook his head. “Anyway, he told me that it had just enough power to activate a Breach Shield but not the Breach. I could safely pass through a Breach but it wouldn’t matter because I couldn’t open one. I thought that meant I was going to be coming with you but when we were arrested separately, I lost hope. Just before Crait’s men shot me, I activated the Breacher. The shield as strong enough to absorb the energy of the blasts which it redirected into the Breacher’s Tempora crystal; it charged the inert crystal which attempted to Breach me away but, by that time, the field had almost collapsed. By the time I hit Rexel, it was skintight.”
“So you were saved by a broken Breacher.” Char concluded.
“I suppose I was.” Brian smiled. “And in doing so, I resurrected the Tempora too.”
Lore looked to their compatriots. “But where did the extra Breacher come from? It couldn’t have been from one of the other Lores because all of their Breachers vanished with them.”
Brian shrugged. “One day, I’m guessing, my future self will get given your Breacher and will bring it back to the past… We could probably get it done and over with now.”
“No.” Lore’s response was instantaneous.
Brian moved in a little closer. “We need to do it some time, might as well be now and besides, you’re in The Guild’s headquarters. We can get you a new Breacher but this one, it has to be yours.” He crept closer still, his hands nearing Lore’s wrist. His grasp closed around their Breacher just as they started to pull away. To both of their surprises, both parties won.
“What?” They exclaimed in unison. As Alodrass and Char looked over to see the confusion, they both raised their Breachers.
“What?” The four of them stared at the twin Breachers. Brian brought his close to Lore’s. Arcs of lightning flickered between them.
“That’s it settled then. That’s all the proof I need.” Brian started to tap at the Breacher. “And that Paradox lightning has given it just enough charge for a one way trip. Once I’m in the past, it will become inert.”
“So how do you get back?” Alodrass asked.
“Ah.” He closed his eyes in thought.
“I could come and pick you up?” Lore proposed.
Brian shook his head. “The flash would be too much.”
“What about me?” Char waved her arm. “No flash and Instant recall will mean the past you will never see me.”
Brian nodded. “There we have it then. Shall we?” Char copied the co-ordinates then waited for him to go. Before the Breacher flash had subsided, they returned. “All done!” He dusted off his hands.
Lore’s confused look was nearly audible. “I know we shouldn’t look gift Breachers in the mouth but where did that second Breacher come from?”
“It’s a remnant.” Alodrass spoke confidently. “When Brian grabbed your wrist, both of your eyes flickered gold.” She pointed between Lore and Char. “What Brian took was your Breacher, but from a second or so in its past. It’s like what The First did but on a much smaller scale and you used the skill sensibly.”
“Sensibly?” Lore scratched their scar. “How do you know all of this?”
Alodrass paused for a moment, as if in conversation with herself before nodding. “I’ve been studying The Cornerstones and their Paragons since I was a little girl; I might not know everything we’re! They’re capable of but I know enough.” She tried to contain her slip of the tongue. “I said it was sensible because it was the best option to close the loop without causing any further issues. You still need your Breacher but your past self needs it too.”
Lore accepted the reason and continued on to the cells.

As if travelling through the digestive tract of a great beast, they reached the belly; the main prison was immense in comparison to the winding corridors they had previously navigated. A three floor panopticon with single occupancy rooms, no bigger than a coffin stood upright, around its circumference. Almost all of the cells appeared to be filled but none of the prisoners were moving. All stood, paralysed behind the glass viewports that allowed their jailer to monitor them. They crossed the bridge into the observation tower. There was a pair of switches for each cell. Lore moved in closer to read the near microscopic labels; their two options were seal/release or terminate.
“Lovely…” Their sarcasm was strong enough to be read as such.
Char looked around for any other indication of what was going on. “Are they alive?”
Brian and Alodrass nodded. “I thought it was only a rumour but…” He shook his head. “It’s barbaric.”
“Hello, hello.” Crait’s face replaced the windows. “I just wanted to record this message for you to help you get settled in as Guild leader. By now, you’re probably looking at my collection of dissenters. Don’t worry, they’re all still alive; our cells are very good at that. What you’re seeing is a wondrous effect known as Stilltime.” Crait’s smile widened. “Stilltime allows us to incarcerate any dissenters indefinitely without need to feed or otherwise look after them. Those inmates will be in the exact same state as when they were first locked up. Which was… Twenty Years ago.” Crait’s voice was replaced with a robotic text-to-speech tone. “It might not allow for rehabilitation but it’s a damn good motivator. Most of these people are still pissed that I had you exiled. Most of them will be pleased to see you. Have fun!” The windows returned to their previous, Crait free, state.
“Should we let them out?” Char’s finger hovered over a big, red button.
Lore shook their head. “Not yet. In an ideal world, yes, but we can’t. Not now. We’ve not got long to rebuild The Guild and we still need to write that speech so… We leave these until we can interview them and either recruit or responsibly release them and in the mean time, we fill the ranks with the clones.”
The others agreed. “With the clones, you should have enough active members to be considered a fledgling Guild.” Brian wracked his memory. “If I’m correct in my thinking, Crait was actually breaching Guild law by having so many active combat personnel. A hundred and four clones fits nicely under the threshold.”
“Of course, The Chamber will, no doubt, be lenient.” Alodrass added. “They understand that there’s been a radical change in leadership.”
Lore nodded. “Perhaps we could use Stilltime for ourselves, recruit everyone and come to them with a fully ready Guild.” Lore thought to themselves.
“Maybe.” Char’s voice filled their mind. “And it would open up some cell space for some of Crait’s people who are too dangerous to be allowed out.”
“We’d gain a great deal of credibility but it’s a lot of stress.” Lore continued. “Hold on a moment, how can I hear what you’re thinking?”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Char responded. “Maybe we should test it’s limits later.” She winked, much to the confusion of Alodrass and Brian who had been waiting in silence for the last few moments.
“Okay, we’re going to take stock of how many personnel we’ve got then we’ll decide from there.” Lore made sure to speak their plan aloud before leaving to return to the main nerve centre.

Alodrass and Brian had made themselves comfortable at a terminal in the centre of the room. “So… Have you two got any ideas about this speech then?” Brian invited them over.
“Give us a minute!” Char laughed. “We’re thinking all over the place at the moment.”
“Okay. Are we writing one speech or two?” Alodrass moved over to a second terminal. “Because it would be easier to write both at the same time if we wanted to.”
“One that we can use for both.” Lore nodded. “I want this new era of The Guild to be as open as we can be so the speech needs to get our mission statement across without giving too much away about our methods.”
“There’s a start.” Brian started typing. “So, open and honest. Anything else?”
Lore looked to Char. After an exchange of eyebrow waves, Lore added. “We’re going non-lethal too.” Silence. “We don’t need to kill anyone to maintain the timeline.”
“Okay, okay, I’m liking that.” Brian’s list grew.
Alodrass didn’t appear as optimistic. “I would be the last person to advocate for murder but when working without lethality, you will have to account for prisoners.”
“So we’ll rehabilitate them.” Lore retorted. “We may need to consider updating our facilities but we’ll try.”
“Non-lethal, rehabilitation and openly honest.” Brian opened a new window. “Let’s get writing then.” His fingers moved at a speed that would have set the keyboard on fire, the friction nearly enough to wear the characters off of their keys.
Lore tried to keep up with his furious speed. “Oh… I’m not sure about…”
“We’ll change it later.” Brian snapped. “Just let me get this first draft done.”
Alodrass placed a gentle hand on his shoulder while shooting apologetic looks to Lore and Char.
“We’ll get to work on… Everything else.” Lore slowly backed away, Char in hand.